Slickety Slack on the Railroad Track!

I spent New Year’s vacation in Los Angeles at Teri’s house with Teri, Mark and Harry. They now are living in Manhattan but wanted to check in on their LA home that has not yet sold, and I wanted to check in on them. It was wonderful to see them, and we started the holiday off Friday night with champagne at friend William’s house with Sally and David who are good friends of Teri and Mark. I’ve met them before and love them both. From there Sally, David, Teri, Mark, Harry and I went to dinner at a very good restaurant whose name I, of course, can’t remember. It took a while for the food to arrive and we consumed much wine while we were waiting. David and I bonded over “Seinfeld” as he likes it like I do. We discussed different phrases they use that everyone knows . . . one special one is when Elaine is all excited over some news Jerry has just told her and she says, “GET OUT!” and shoves him in the chest, sometimes actually knocking him on his back! I could have gone on all night like that, and I think David was egging me on. We both agreed that “Seinfeld” is like comfort food. But the night came to an end as did I.

Sunday we took Harry and his friend, Moritz, to the Lazy J Ranch in the Malibu hills for two nights. The road up through the hills was horrible! It’s like you could take a long piece of pipe cleaner and twist it into little S curves all the way down the pipe cleaner. The road was like that – one S curve after another up the hill. And it just went on and on. We finally reached the camp and dropped the boys off. You couldn’t pay me enough to go to a camp like that in the hills, but then I don’t have to, do I? After we dropped them off, we headed up to Santa Barbara. I had never been there before, and it is a beautiful city. All the old Spanish architecture is something to see. We stayed at The Upham Hotel & Country House which is the oldest, active hotel in continuous operation. They had their 100th anniversary in 1972. They took me to the Mission there which was very beautiful and awesome. That night we had dinner at the Biltmore Hotel. I’ve heard of it but never imagined I would be seeing it and eating there. It was very exciting and the building and grounds were gorgeous. The food was pretty good too.

Monday, New Year’s Eve day, we drove back to LA and began preparing dinner for Teri and Mark’s New Year’s Eve party. I helped as much as I could and Teri prepared a fabulous dinner. The hors d’oeuvres were so plentiful; they could have been the entire meal. But she also had roast pork loin, a spinach dish that was out of this world and I made my special dessert which was chocolate cookies (oreos) and whipped cream all mixed up together. The table was like something out of a fancy magazine – candles, napkins, wine glasses, etc. It was really pretty and not at all the way I eat at home with a spoon and a paper napkin. But it’s good for me to see how the other 97% live. Teri wore a vintage dress she bought here in Portland one time, and she looked darling in it. I had not brought any fancy clothes (do I even have any? No, I don’t). So Teri gave me a gold jacket that I wore over my jeans. But it was scratchy and very warm, so I decided to put on the t-shirt that Harry bought for me when they were at Fire Island. He had gone running through the store yelling, “Grandma would love this!” And grandma does love it – on the front it says, “It’s not pretty being easy.” Everyone seemed to like what it said. When the guests arrived, William came with Ruth, his dog, and David and Sally came with each other. Sally had on a wild dress with stiff, black netting that stuck out and made it hard for her to get through doors and sit down. But it was lovely! In the above pictures are Sally and Teri, standing by the stove, and Teri and Mark by the dinner table.. We had champagne and wine with dinner and then toasted the New Year. We watched Dick Clark on TV bring in the New Year in New York, and we all made comments, one of which was why is he still doing that? No one came up with an answer. We discussed New Year’s resolutions and they decided on more sex and less work. I said some sex . . . or maybe any sex . . . whatever. It was a very fun evening.

New Year’s Day, we went up again to the mountains to pick up Harry, but we took a different route that wasn’t as curvy and scary as the one we originally took. From there we went directly to the airport where Teri and Harry caught a flight to New York and I caught mine to Portland. Mark flew home the next day.

I talked to Cindy who spent the holidays with her two college boys – do I call them men now? – and her ex-husband. She had no cell phone as one of the boys/men had it and they also had her car. I guess after this weekend things will be back to normal for her . . . as if that will ever happen! We talked of going back to visit Teri when they get a permanent place – we’d go together so we could have a sorority meeting and discuss new business, old business, any business. The last time we were together back there was right after Teri had Harry, and Cindy and I dragged her out for a night on the town. It was snowing and coming home I fell in a snow bank and they just kept on walking. Can’t let that happen again. We had a good time though.

I used to say “Slickety slack on the railroad track” when I was excited or saw something really cool. I think I made it up myself – would anyone else make up something like that? I still say it occasionally, and Harry heard me say it once and has never forgotten it. It even came up when we were with Sally and David. I think they liked it and are probably saying it themselves as I’m writing this. I certainly hope so.